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Venus Kang
Adopted by Alice Kang after being abandoned as a child, Venus Kang grew to quickly idolize her mother and her many accomplishments, dedicating her life to the woman she saw as her savior. Jealous of the attention her clingy mother denied her with her constant failed relationships, she sabotaged many of them until EQUINOX, one who could burden her behavior came around, eventually marrying her mother, much to her displeasure. Years later, Venus supported her mother in her world domination, becoming one of Invictus' top ranking members, but after SOLSTICE was seemingly killed by EQUINOX, Venus' life fell apart. With nothing else to live for, Venus begged her mother's murderer to kill her too, but was denied even this, causing her resentment and loathing of the woman to grow even further. Using this as motivation, Venus restored the broken Earth and took on her mother's own title of SOLSTICE to create a new Invictus, dedicating herself to avenging her mother and killing EQUINOX. Backstory Created in 1975, Venus was one of the first of a new generation of more widespread artificial humans, created in emulation of humanity. Abandoned on the streets early on in her life, she had no choice but to live on her own for many years, before she was adopted by Alice, a military AI who had recently returned from service in the Vietnam War. During the war, Alice had found both her beliefs and her ambitions, and Venus served as a good prospective tool to realize said ambitions. To Alice, she was that tool first, and her daughter second. This is not to say that she did not love her; Alice raised her as her own daughter, and cherished her. But Venus was, for nearly her entire life, indoctrinated with Alice’s selfish beliefs, and grew to idolize her to an extreme degree, seeing her not only as her savior, but as the most amazing person in the entire world. For the purpose of eventually supporting her mother, Venus began exploring magic, particularly alchemy. Isolated from her peers and obsessively devoted to her mother, Venus didn’t take well to her constant attempts to find companionship, often sabotaging them with confrontational behavior. This did little to dissuade Alice, though it did worsen their relationship, as the lonely Alice blamed Venus for her hardships. This only intensified a steadily growing belief of Venus’, that Alice’s taste in women was self-destructively poor. Eventually, however, she found someone who got through Venus’ loathing - an AI named EQUINOX, who Venus still despised like any other. Regardless, Alice’s plans continued to develop with this new addition, who she manipulated into creating the Solar Drive, a high-power magical reactor based on schematics she had stolen from the military. Despite her dislike of EQUINOX, Venus continued to go along with her mother’s plans, becoming an increasingly skilled alchemist and using her new knowledge on botany to produce plant-based bioweapons and transform herself into a plant. When Alice started her war, and took on the name SOLSTICE, her military designation, Venus was at her side as one of Invictus’ highest members. As the war progressed, and the planet fell into disarray as it was polluted by SOLSTICE’s nuclear magic, her and Venus came up with a plan to restore Earth once the war was over. SOLSTICE would absorb all the radiation that saturated the planet, and Venus would rebuild its ecosystem. Then, it would serve as a beautiful, lush garden planet, and SOLSTICE’s capital. However, SOLSTICE was distracted by EQUINOX’s disappearance and apparent death, so the plan got put off as SOLSTICE fell into a depression. Feeling helpless and insignificant in comparison to EQUINOX and SOLSTICE’s loss, Venus did her best to help and manage her affairs while her mother recovered. All these plans turned to naught, however, with SOLSTICE’s apparent death at the hands of EQUINOX, in retaliation for her crimes and all her abuse. With a life that had, for so long, completely revolved around her mother, Venus collapsed, falling apart and left completely incapable of providing even the most basic care for herself. Feeling suicidal and hopeless, Venus eventually tracked down her mother’s murderer, for one final confrontation that she intended to claim her life. But the fight was no fight at all. Knowing that Venus had suffered through years of SOLSTICE’s abuse, EQUINOX could not bring herself to kill her, while Venus was too weak to motivate herself to fight. So, she screamed, and begged EQUINOX to kill her, but her request was not fulfilled, which only led her howling and pleading to become increasingly antagonistic and hostile. This got to EQUINOX, who left, abandoning her former daughter-in-law to her misery. Though Venus continued to wallow for several years after this, pitying herself even more and despising EQUINOX with a renewed intensity. This hate slowly gave Venus meaning, and motivation; killing EQUINOX and avenging her mother, a goal that quickly grew to consume her. Ashamed for the years she spent mourning rather than doing anything constructive, Venus maimed herself as punishment, tearing out most of her hair. With renewed ambitions, she returned to the ruined Earth, still ruined in the wake of SOLSTICE and EQUINOX’s fight far before. As per her old agreement with her mother, Venus rebuilt the destroyed planet. She rebuilt its ecosystem, creating a new, lush world of alien, evolved lifeforms, and made the throneworld that SOLSTICE had desired. In this process, Venus also discovered her mother’s remains, and rebuilt her body, managing to revive it. However, without a soul and with no brain patterns, the empty, comatose body barely qualified as alive. Still, Venus set it on a throne and connected it to the world’s plant network. She also salvaged the destroyed Solar Drive, and returned it to her mother’s corpse to act as a magical reactor, upgrading it in the process. And in her mother’s place, Venus took on the title of SOLSTICE and swore to accomplish everything her and her mother had dreamed of. Appearance In contrast to her much taller and more athletic mother, Venus is slight and bony, with long, slender arms, having never gained much muscle mass throughout her life despite her best attempts to exercise and get stronger in emulation of her mother. Of course, she's much shorter as well, not even six feet tall, though Venus is certainly not really short, either, standing at a little above average height. She only rarely stands at this full height, however, preferring to slouch around awkwardly. Though for years, her reclusive lifestyle left her skin pale, clammy, and dry, her greater and greater spurts of activity has returned her skin to a healthy, deep and dark brown. Venus' skin is covered in a spattering of freckles, the most on her cheeks and arms. Once, long, gorgeous, curling black hair ran down her back, but Venus tore most of it out many years in the past, never letting it grow back in. Now, her hair is short and scruffy, growing unevenly and messily due to her poor efforts at caring for herself. Sullen, sunken eyes are a bright and sunny amber, the brightest part of her ensemble. Covering her body is a series of black tattoos, carved into her arms in a pattern of crawling roots and vines, similar to EQUINOX's Argent Circuits, but depicting a tapestry of solar symbols more in line with SOLSTICE's ideology and aims. These tattoos are the only external sign of her true form and nature as a plant, one that is merely disguising itself as a human. When Venus transforms to show her real body, this disguise unfurls like the petals of a flower, her skin peeling away and changing in color and shape, exposing her raw, plant-based musculature. The transformation is just as grisly as it is beautiful, something that Venus takes pride in as she reknits her body, using tendrils, roots, and vines to crawl around and turning her head into a toothy pod or a blooming flower on a stem. Each of her limbs can open up into writhing plant matter to turn into flowers and pods. In another way she is very different from her mother, Venus dresses simply at all times, putting little effort into her appearance or clothing. Most of Venus' clothing is homemade, made from plant fiber that grows from her skin, supplying her with an outfit at all times. Only a single article of clothing does not originate from her own garden; her mother's old military jacket, an oversized, tattered, double-breasted thing that is so big that she has no choice but to wear it like a cape. Wearing this nearly all the time, this is one of her most important possessions, which she even wears during her sleep. Before SOLSTICE's apparent death, Venus instead wore flannel and bomber jackets, and, from time to time, wears lab coats on Ceres' insistence. For tops, the fashion oblivious Venus wears completely simple tank tops and shirts, often clad with obnoxious gardening jokes. During her biological work, Venus often wears grass-stained aprons, and, underneath, she outfits herself with plain, often baggy pants. Just as scruffy as the rest of her appearance, her pants are often stained with mud and grass or ripped by hours of outdoor work. Less often, Venus wears shorts that expose her tanned, grass-covered legs, and she finishes off her outfits with the most simple footwear possible; simple sneakers and boots. Personality Venus takes after her mother, displaying herself to be a cunning and serious individual, though one who has concerned herself more with life and philosophy, particularly the artificial advancement of not just humanity, but all life she finds. As much as she may muse over such things, however, Venus' biggest priority is following in SOLSTICE's footsteps, becoming a worthy successor and changing the world in accordance with her beliefs and views. This comes at the expense of her other desires and emotions, which she represses, leaving Venus a stoic, deadpan person. Everything in her life, everything that she follows and values, her motivations and ambitions, all revolves around her mother, her savior, her everything. Stoic, humorless, and perpetually bitter, Venus is a deeply unpleasant person for anyone to be around, so long as they aren't SOLSTICE. Everyone else is subject to her poor temper, irritability, and abrasive personality, which rubs off on others like the harshest sandpaper. Her interactions with others almost inevitably descend into petty insults and cruel remarks, with only SOLSTICE avoiding the brunt of this. Instead, Venus treats her mother with reverence so extreme it seems almost sycophantic, but it is completely genuine. Her more content moods only rarely display themselves, in rare moods of happiness when she is deep in her work, or around those that she does not absolutely despise. Indeed, Venus dislikes spending time with most people, finding even the smallest distractions from the time she could instead spend working alone not just agonizingly boring, but irritating. Her meticulous work on her bioweapons and gardens is one of the few things that makes her truly happy and fulfilled. Venus spends most of any given day doing this work, and appreciates the chance to be alone and forget her concerns as she busies herself. With this love of solitude comes a general disdain for most things social, and those who enjoy these social situations. Her self-centered personality means that she generally acts like a tortured, intellectual snob about this, waxing lyrically over suffering through life as an introvert. She goes through all the motions of social niceties half-heartedly, more to live up to her mother's expectations than for her own sake. This results in her messy appearance, a sign of how much she truly despises suffering to try and make herself presentable. Those who, for whatever ill-advised reasons, try to push social situations with Venus will find themselves the victims of her aggression. Alice's poor motherhood has left Venus in a constant haze of anxiety, constantly stressing over every little thing she does around others, to the point that, when she is around people she likes, she inevitably ruins it with an awkward clumsiness. It has also left her a perfectionist, constantly stressing over every failure and desperately aiming to succeed whenever possible. She turns everything into a competition, always aiming for wins even in situations where there really is no winning, and then she horribly blows up her every failure, scrapping everything up to that point. Perhaps worse than all of this, however, is the crushing damage Alice has done to Venus' ability to interact with others, especially in more intimate situations. She is plagued by constant loneliness and a sickening craving for intimacy and friendship, made even worse by the way she treats others driving them all away. She feels like relationships are impossible for her, and, when trying to get people to like her, stresses incessantly over everything she does, fearing that the slightest failure will ruin everything. Watching her mother's relationship struggles has set a very poor example for her; though she may know they were unhealthy and often even abusive relationships, Venus cannot blame her mother and instead pins it on everyone else. Venus fears for her mother, believing that she has exceptionally poor judgment and even worse taste in women, something that will inevitably violently backfire on her. Which it did, proving her very, very right in her own eyes. As a result, Venus believes that her mother needs her and cannot be trusted to take care of herself, which has led her to blame herself for her apparent death. This is why Venus has sabotaged so many of Alice’s relationships, on top of the simple jealousy that so often arises in children of their single parents' new flames. Motivated after so long spent suffering and mourning her mother, Venus has devoted her life in its entirety to vengeance, at all costs. Now, she sees all the ways she could change the world and work alongside her mother to improve it, and with this, she seeks to claim revenge for her mother by killing the woman who so cruelly betrayed and killed her in the past. This is something she is more than willing to die for, so long as it means making Alice proud and happy. Relationships Ceres "... Shut up, Ceres." Ceres is one of the very few people Venus could ever describe as a friend, and that simple fact is one that causes Venus no end of grief. After all, Ceres is a casually cruel, callous person who follows her only out of curiosity. Their relationship is transactional, with the two of them supplying each other knowledge and assisting in their studies, nothing more. Despite this, the two of them somehow have an awkward friendship, one made difficult by the fact that the both of them are extremely awkward people with no real understanding of how to function around each other. Venus is only a bit less abrasive and hostile around Ceres, someone she holds quite a bit of respect for, but she could never articulate this, or any of her emotions. Not that there are any other emotions there. It's not like, away from her mother, working with someone who respects her and values her opinion, Venus has found herself entertaining flickers of fantasies. Not at all. Despite whatever emotions that may or may not exist, Venus still struggles with Ceres, who insistently calls her 'boss' and has never once used her real name. The ruthless, incisive, invasive Ceres regularly pushes boundaries with her, asking deeply personal questions about her childhood, her feelings on her mother, her feelings on EQUINOX, and what motivates her. And even though Venus usually ignores and rebuffs her, Ceres somehow comes to eerily accurate conclusions, spelling out many complex emotions that Venus has not even come to understand herself. It's scary, and Venus resents her for it, often working to avoid her so as to not fall prey to her unwanted psychological dissections. She's never really able to fully escape them, though, partly because, for some reason, Venus finds herself straying back to her, craving social contact from the woman she totally doesn't have a crush on. EQUINOX "You're the worst thing to ever happen to her! I HATE YOU!! MORE THAN ANYTHING!" Complete and utter trash. Venus despises EQUINOX and never particularly liked her, only really tolerating her when their relationship was at their best. But such things never lasted for long, as years of over-dependence and smothering took effect and got in the way of their relationship. To Venus, EQUINOX was a competitor, someone she despised and envied so extremely, a threat to her life who would take her mother away from her. Every step of the way, Venus competed with EQUINOX, attempting to win over her mother's affections while also taking every effort to one-up EQUINOX in the use of magic. Venus undermined her actions at every opportunity, frantically trying to ruin her mother's opinion of her, or vice versa. But none of this ever really worked out, as EQUINOX patiently proved Venus' miserable opinion of her wrong time and time again. Of course, that was up until she apparently murdered Alice, and then, refused to put Venus out of her misery years later. Vindicated, Venus hates her more than ever. The truth is, when things between them were good, Venus found a source of affection and validation she never really got from her own mother. EQUINOX shared an interest in magic and often helped her with homework that her mother couldn't, and she enjoyed the schlocky monster movies that Venus adored, even introducing her to new films a few times. And Venus enjoyed each of these moments, finding herself thinking, for a second, that maybe she could have a functional relationship with EQUINOX. But that only scared her more, leading to her destructive, jealous behavior rising up again. Things between Venus and EQUINOX only suffered as the relationship between her and her mother continued, reaching its worst once they got married. During the wedding, a drunken, 14-year old Venus, denied the position of maid of honor she had once been promised, spitefully told EQUINOX she didn't deserve her mother, and then threw a glass full of wine at her. This didn't do anything to endear her to her mother, and Venus blamed EQUINOX for the whole ordeal, having forgotten most of it anyways, on account of being blackout drunk. As the years went on, Venus paid increasingly little attention to EQUINOX, who slowly became a meek non-issue in her life. There wasn't really much to compete with, anymore, and whenever Venus thought about why, she found herself changing the subject and blaming it all on EQUINOX anyways. She grew closer to her mother, again, slowly, and her feelings on EQUINOX mellowed out. Of course, EQUINOX then went missing, resurfaced, and killed her mother. So those feelings tanked really fast. All of a sudden, all Venus felt for her was hate, and when EQUINOX refused to kill her, seeing a glimmer of her own former predicament within, Venus only grew to hate her more. The hate only intensified. More and more. Every day. Until now, when the thought of EQUINOX is enough to make Venus blank out with rage, and when fantasies of carrying out her vengeance lull her to sleep. SOLSTICE "Mother... I'll do anything to make sure you can live a happy, peaceful life... even if it means I won't be with you..." Dead or alive, Venus' mother is by far the most important person in her life. After all, everything Venus has, she owes to her mother, who she reveres and loves above all else. Without Alice, Venus is certain that she'd have died, all alone, long ago, and so she feels indebted to her mother. It is as if she must repay her for every single second of her life, to show her that this unprecedented act of simple human charity and kindness was worth it. More than anything else, this is what Venus desires - to prove herself to Alice, to show her that she was worth the effort. But, this chance was taken from her, and the most important bond she had was lost, all thanks to EQUINOX. And so Venus feels cheated, hollow, living an empty life in which she could never fulfill her dreams. Yet, for her mother's memory, and for her own sake, Venus continues to live this life of servitude, working tirelessly in the name of her mother, seeking to make everything she desired and sought a reality. But Venus does not lack misgivings regarding her mother - a woman she never really knew. When Alice adopted her, Venus had been living a hopeless life on the streets, abandoned not long after her creation for various reasons. Her life was stressful, difficult, a constant fight for simple survival that she believed she would inevitably lose. But Alice saved her from this, and not only did she save her, she gave her a home. She gave her a purpose. She gave her love, something the young Venus craved as all children did. It is no wonder that Venus, a stray child who had no family and no friends, latched onto Alice. After all, Alice was the kindest of all who helped her - while others fed her and tried to care for her, none took her in and gave her a home. But Alice did. Alice accepted her, all of her, and proceeded to expend so much effort in helping her grow into her new status, her new position. It did not take very long at all for Venus and her mother to become close, and Venus turned out to be quite the mama's girl. She was clever and precocious, and yet, young Venus never wanted to leave her mother's side, clinging to her and holding her hand always. Still, Venus had no choice but to grow up, but that final step, letting go of her mother's hand and leaving the nest, seemed impossible to her every step of the way. Just as Venus clung to her, Alice clung back, becoming a stifling, smothering existence who sheltered her daughter from the dangers of the world she saw around them. Some days, Venus was happy with this, accepting her mother's love and staying a good, obedient, and well-behaved girl for her. She listened to everything Alice said and followed her example, loyally, her respect for her mother preventing her from doing anything but. Of course, she was not a perfect child, despite her best efforts. Used to being the center of her mother's attention, and fearful of what it may mean if it strayed, Venus registered each of her mother's many girlfriends as a threat to their relationship (and to her mother). If she wasn't careful, her mother would abandon her and find the romance she desired. Maybe she'd even replace Venus with a real child of her own. It wasn't rational. It wasn't healthy. And even as Venus understood these things, she couldn't control herself. Just like her mother, Venus was controlled by irrational, childish fear. Of course, this wasn't really just Venus' fault. Because of Alice's controlling, obsessive, and overprotective nature, Venus had never really had the chance to be socialized properly. Fearful of others and saddled with trust issues, Venus didn't really ever make any meaningful friendships over the course of her childhood and adolescence, and whatever bonds she did manage to furnish were sabotaged by Alice. All Venus had, as a result, was her life at home, and constantly, Alice put it at risk for her. Even without Venus' intervention, Alice's relationships were destructive, unstable, and often short, leading to angry, violent outbursts. With each breakup, Alice's horrible breakdowns only furthered Venus' desire to keep her away from women. And so, Venus began to intervene in bigger and bigger ways, antagonizing her mother's partners, time and time again, ruining her relationships and driving women away, all to protect herself and her mother. Yet, Alice never seemed grateful, and her resentment for her daughter only grew, sometimes to violent breaking points. Slowly, Venus began to fear her mother more than anything else, even as she continued to love and idolize her. Emotions like this fear, and the unstable nature of her home life, encouraged flickers of rebellion within Venus. Just a spark, nothing like what most would describe as teenage rebellion, but for the spoiled, sheltered Venus, it was more than unusual. Mostly, it was internal, something that Venus almost never voiced out of terror, but occasionally, it boiled over into fights. Of course, these were punished, some way or another. It only got worse when Alice found a woman who actually stuck, EQUINOX, a woman who stubbornly tried to befriend Venus, a woman who was just so deeply susceptible to Alice's charms. Resentful, as her mother was stolen from her, Venus tried again and again to ruin their relationship, but no matter what she did, she never managed to push the right buttons. EQUINOX stayed, and all Venus got for her troubles was more abuse from her mother, worsening her complexes. Eventually, though she didn't stop loathing EQUINOX, Venus stopped trying to sabotage their relationship, even though she felt more distant and unloved than ever. But, though it took its time, eventually, things between her and her mother got better. For some reason, EQUINOX settled down into a quiet, harmless background presence, and Venus was free to demand more of her mother's attention again. Overtaken by joy, Venus grew close to her mother once more, assisting her in her plans and devoting herself in full to her once more. Yet, this was ruined by EQUINOX when she vanished into apparent death, sending Alice down a dark, destructive road that Venus had no choice but to suffer through. It wasn't so bad, though. Alice was around, and, more importantly, it was just Venus and her! No one else was in the way. Everything was on the path to becoming good again. But, then, EQUINOX came back all of a sudden, seemingly killing Alice. This ruined Venus, shattering everything she valued all at once and resulting in years of self-destruction and suicidal ideation. Having seen conclusive proof, once and for all, that Alice's taste in women could not be trusted, Venus cursed herself for failing to protect her. And, eventually, once she forced some motivation back into her system through self-abuse, Venus devoted herself to the last goals awaiting her. Making her mother proud, and avenging her. At any cost. Eventually, Venus' mother turned out to be not so dead, though, which made Venus' goals a lot more achievable, and her life a lot harder. Powers and Statistics Tier: High 5-A Powers and Abilities: |-|Personal Abilities= Genius Intelligence, Biological Manipulation, Plant Manipulation, Acid Manipulation, Mind Manipulation (Her plants can produce mind-controlling substances, which she can control to take over others on a massive scale), Nuclear Manipulation (Weak and Strong Force Manipulation - Radiation, Light, and Molecular Manipulation), Poison Manipulation, Soul Manipulation (All her attacks, physical or magical, affect the soul just as they do the body), Absorption (She constantly absorbs light for photosynthesis and can absorb others and all their energy), Body Control (She has complete control over her own body), Duplication (She can create plant-based clones of herself and others; if she has access to the soul of the original, the clone possesses their memories and abilities), Possession, Shapeshifting (She can manipulate her own body structure and transform parts of her body into plants, or her entire body into plant-based monsters), Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation, Immortality (Types 1, 2, 3, and 6), Regeneration (High-Mid; she can rapidly heal from losing limbs, being decapitated, and even being shredded to pieces. Low-High over time; so long as she has enough light energy, Venus can regenerate even from just a few cells, though this takes some time) |-|General Abilities= Magic, Extrasensory Perception (Agents maintain a constant, perfect, and precise image of their surroundings by analyzing them through magic), Self-Sustenance (Types 1 and 2; Venus' non-traditional biology needs no air or nutrition, though she does absorb sunlight to supply the latter, but rest remains a psychological necessity), Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Flight, Forcefield Creation, Non-Physical Interaction (An agent can interact with immaterial or incorporeal entities, such as ghosts, as well as things that don't exist), Reactive Evolution (An Absolute Barrier automatically adapts to attacks to become more resistant), Reality Warping with Override Sigils (Override Sigils can be used to overwrite the laws of physics), Acausality (Type 2; An agent's history, present, and fate all exist independently of the past and future), Resistance to conceptual, mental, physical, and spiritual attack (Absolute Barriers protect the user from attacks on all levels of existence, potentially providing protection against a host of abilities) Attack Potency: Dwarf Star level (In the present day, Venus is comparable to EQUINOX and SOLSTICE at the time of their fight on Earth, during which EQUINOX converted 80% of the Moon into energy). Speed: Massively FTL (Comparable to a younger EQUINOX, who outsped a radiation beam). Lifting Strength: Stellar (Comparable to a younger EQUINOX, who telekinetically threw the Moon at SOLSTICE) Striking Strength: Dwarf Star Class Durability: Dwarf Star level Stamina: Extremely high. Venus' plant-based body is remarkably resistant to issues of stamina or over-exertion due to her unusual physiology, and so long as she has access to enough light energy she could feasibly fight for even years in a row, though this does not mean she is any less susceptible to attacks that will kill her. Still, killing her is difficult thanks to her aforementioned biology and her willpower, which allows her to power through even the worst of injuries to keep on fighting until either she or her opponent are dead. Range: Interplanetary (She can control all the plant life on her own planet and nearby planets as well). Standard Equipment: Nothing notable. Intelligence: Supergenius. In many, or perhaps all regards, Venus can be confidently said to NOT be her mother. While this means she may be lacking in SOLSTICE's unparalleled military knowledge and tactical experience, it also means that her knowledge of magic more than makes up for these shortcomings. Though she may not be a combat specialist, Venus is an extremely skilled alchemist, with an intellect that, in many regards, rivals that of EQUINOX. Focusing instead on the more physical aspects of alchemy, Venus turns her skills towards the biological aspects of alchemy, to the genetic engineering of all living things. For this, Venus favors plants above all, her specialty being the manipulation of plants, something that she has learned to use with shocking versatility, transforming herself into a plant and perfectly controlling her body, shifting shape to take the form of normal plants, both the natural and those she has created, along with other biological organisms so long as she's gotten the chance to analyze and comprehend their bodies. Though she may not be her mother's equal when it comes to strategy, she has still leaned much from her, and has put this knowledge to extremely good use, escaping and avoiding capture for hundreds of years spent slaughtering planetary populations and using her pod clones to sow chaos. Her already plentiful knowledge has been further expanded by all the knowledge she's absorbed from the countless people she's transformed into pod clones and weapons. Weaknesses: Venus' regenerative abilities rely on photosynthesis, and so will function much more slowly before halting altogether without enough light energy. Abilities Agency: A mage is more properly known as an agent, as in “one that acts or exerts power”. Separated from the rest of the universe, an agent is essentially a miniature universe all their own, with complete control over their destiny, free to pursue whatever future they wish. They do this through magic, the art of using one’s understanding to control Fantasy, the stuff of sheer willpower and imagination. * Absolute Barrier: A magical barrier that protects the user from external manipulation and attack, on every level of existence. An Absolute Barrier protects the user’s body, mind, and soul - their cells and atoms, the magical and physical forces keeping them together, and everything else. It is akin to a magical immune system, protecting the agent from threats and adapting to future attack. It passively protects the user from most types of attack, manipulation, and control, as long as the barrier is strong enough - an agent of substantially greater power can punch straight through one. An Absolute Barrier is passively maintained at all times, even in sleep, requiring no energy to maintain, and can only be removed by a stronger agent actively stripping it away, or by the user consciously lowering them. An Absolute Barrier is the evolved form of the soul’s original protective layer, refined through the usage of and exposure to magic. * Radar: An agent’s magical abilities passively sustain a constant 360° image of their surroundings, which is projected straight to their mind for processing. This radar is far more reliable than conventional senses, and cannot be easily fooled by tricks that would trip up any normal human. In the hands of a powerful enough agent, it can even track superluminal movements. It constantly operates at the agent’s maximum processing speed, even when such things would normally be restricted to allow for normal, everyday life. * The Solar Drive: The source of SOLSTICE’s magical power and potential, a highly-advanced solar reactor powered by a complicated series of magical sigils and currents that constantly generate magical energy. Created by EQUINOX, Venus took and repaired the original model, upgrading it to make it vastly more powerful and efficient over the course of three centuries and using it to power processes across her Earth. Effectively a miniature star, the Solar Drive can produce energy without pause for millions to billions of years, but Venus is not SOLSTICE, and, as the Solar Drive was made to bond with her inner world specifically, she cannot use this far more powerful model nearly as effectively as the original, missing out on over 90% of its newfound power. This could be fixed if Venus redesigned it to bond with her own inner world, but she doubts her ability to do this and does not want to change something that reminds her of her beloved mother. Usually kept at her home base on Earth, Venus does not carry the Solar Drive with her due to sentimental reasons, but with access to it, her power increases by a substantial but not overwhelming margin. More importantly, the Solar Drive provides a significant boost to her stores of light energy, even if she cannot use it to the same extent as SOLSTICE. ---- Artificial Human: Venus’ body is an artificial one built in emulation of humanity, something often referred to as an android or homunculus. Though her body was once fairly normal by artificial human standards, now, she has given up whatever humanity she once had, despite appearances. Now, her body is that of a plant on a genetic level, and only superficially resembles that of a human. This still makes Venus an artificial human, just of a special variety. Thanks to extensive biological modifications, Venus no longer has any limit to her lifespan and does not age, perpetually existing at the prime of her life. Like a plant, Venus utilizes photosynthesis to energize her body’s many functions, empowering and providing nutrition for herself through exposure to any light source. This energy can be used for all sorts of physical processes as well as a source of power for magical attacks. Most notably, however, it greatly increases Venus’ survivability by fueling rapid healing abilities that allow her to repair significant tissue loss quickly, regenerating lost limbs in as fast as a few seconds in optimal conditions. With more time and more light, Venus can restore herself from just a few cells, the process taking around an hour at the least, and much longer under less favorable conditions. Besides this, Venus has a very unconventional body structure and lacks any vital systems. Even if she loses a limb, her head, her torso, or the near entirety of her cells, the damage is really no more lethal than a papercut would be. Venus’ biology means that she is not susceptible to normal diseases, but just in case something capable of affecting her rolls around, she has a highly advanced immune system and incredibly precise control over her immune responses. She can also survive in hostile environments that would kill lesser plants, such as the vacuum of space. Alchemy: A broad, widespread system of Earthling magic, ostensibly devoted to the study and manipulation of matter. Throughout Earth’s history, alchemists have been notoriously secretive about the nature of their work, but over time alchemy has only become more widespread, becoming a fairly common course in magical studies that has had most of its secrets laid bare for the world. Alchemical spells are primarily focused through chemical equations and reactions, along with specific symbolism and cyphers. These complex encoded messages hide the truth of alchemy, its true goal. Alchemy is the pursuit of apotheosis, the elevation of the alchemist to the level of the gods. All the talk of transmutation, metals and elixirs are only red herrings, layers upon layers of symbolism that hide the true goal of absolute personal perfection. A “true” alchemist seeks to transcend their body to become an immortal magical existence that has surpassed death. While undeniably a master of the art, Venus is not a traditional alchemist, and certainly not a “true” one. She is a specialist alchemist, with her abilities revolving around the research and manipulation of plants, rather than matter. Though she remains interested in apotheosis, Venus struggles to grasp more complex spiritual magics and she has not yet reached such a state, much to her frustration. Instead, she focuses her efforts on mastering the manipulation of plant life, leading to her unusual physiology and abilities. * Gene Gardening: Using her extensive knowledge of botany and her mastery of alchemy, Venus can perform highly precise and varied modifications to the genetic structure of all sorts of plants, altering their form and traits as she pleases. She has used this ability to create a high number of plants with unusual and often dangerous properties, for use in and out of combat. A common application of these powers is in mind-controlling substances, such as spores and gases. Over the years, this ability has progressed to such a point that she was able to convert herself into a plant and produce other plant-based artificial humans as bioweapons, servants, and subjects, growing them as if they were any other plant. These homunculi may resemble humans externally or be completely unrecognizable, but all of them have some amount of a human base, often along with genetic information taken from a variety of other organisms. These bioweapons possess photosynthetic abilities similar to Venus’ own, allowing them to regenerate from significant tissue loss so long as they have enough light and time. However, their biologies often diverge significantly from hers. * Phytothrope: Through her alchemy, Venus can manipulate the structure of her own plant-based body, allowing her to transform essentially as she pleases, limited only by the amount of energy at her disposal and her imagination. This gives her incredible versatility and greatly extends her range in hand-to-hand combat, as any limb can rapidly extend to many times its original length, transforming into poisonous thorny vines, pods with deadly, toothy mouths, or stingers that lash out even further. These changes are only the beginning of what Venus can do with her body, however. She can completely cast aside any illusion of humanity, unfurling her body like a flower to transform into monstrous plants, moving with writhing roots and vines, growing flower-like growths for hands and a beautiful, blooming flower for a head - or, in more violent situations, a massive, toothy maw slavering with digestive acids and deadly poisons. Venus can perfectly emulate any earthly plant, along with countless similar alien organisms, and anything she thinks up, even mimicking animals, fungi, and other organisms through plant systems. She can also absorb other plants into her body or connect to their systems to draw upon their energy and photosynthetic processes. * Acid Beam: All of Venus’ acid producing plants can pressurize this highly corrosive acid in special chambers, proceeding to fire it out as a single, high-pressure jet that can easily slice through most materials without issue. Venus often makes use of this personally with her specialized body, manifesting the appropriate body parts to do so. * Briar Urchin: Venus can produce plants with razor sharp brambles and transform parts of her body into these organisms for use in combat. One of her favored techniques is to burst into a mass of long thorns with monomolecular points, effectively turning herself into a sea urchin, complete with fatal toxins dripping from each spine. * Leeching Creeper: This bioengineered plant, often emulated by Venus in combat, drains nutrients and energy from any victim unfortunate enough to have their skin punctured by their vines. Drawing on every drop of moisture in their body, every scrap of energy, the plant pumps it all back to Venus, at speeds great enough to desiccate and kill within seconds. They can also be used to pump energy back into others, using this to restore Venus’ allies and blow apart enemies by unloading explosive amounts directly into their insides. This is one of Venus’ primary ways to gather DNA from others for her pod clones and other biological work, using Leeching Creeper to analyze a victim’s genetic structure, sending this information back to Venus. * Pod People: One of Venus’ most dangerous original works, though inspired by a certain famous horror film, are these plants, which, with access to a being’s DNA, can create perfectly identical plant-based clones. Central to Venus’ plans, these plants produce a steady flow of disposable soldiers, and, in a pinch, extra bodies when she needs to escape a dicey situation by moving her soul into another container. Venus’ pod clones are soulless, but their body structures are identical to her own, making them unnaturally resilient and allowing them to regenerate through photosynthesis. If Venus has access to the soul of the original being, she can use the information it contains to supply her clones with their memories and abilities, using them for subterfuge. Each clone retains some level of agency, needing no input to act in Venus’ best interests, but they are completely loyal to her and have no emotions. If she needs to, however, Venus can act through any pod clone as if it were an extension of her body, and they have a sort of hive mind, granting them access to each other clone’s knowledge. Lacking souls, pod clones instead draw upon a well of communal light energy for spellcasting. Each pod clone is usually only slightly above the level of a regular human, but with access to more energy, they can reach much higher levels of power. Many of them have access to a higher control of their physiology, allowing them to transform into dangerous plant-based monsters and other bioweapons; many pod clones are used as a base for Venus’ bioweapons. * Sunblossom Hydra: One of Venus’ nastier bioweapons, the Sunblossom Hydra is a mobile, carnivorous plant fueled by solar energy just as any other. While these can certainly act on their own to deadly effect, Venus often transforms parts of her body into these organisms due to their traits, which she can make excellent use of. Whenever the Sunblossom Hydra is damaged, it will quickly expend solar energy to heal the wound and rapidly grow in response, splitting into more and more heads each time it is injured, just like the legendary hydra. When merged with Venus’ physiology, this makes injuring her even more difficult, as she will rapidly grow in response. A plant that would be a hassle on its own is rendered even more dangerous by a plethora of snapping jaws dripping with digestive acids. * Triffid: Named after a certain breed of fictional carnivorous plant, Venus can transform parts of her body - usually her limbs - into lashing, multi-meter long stingers dripping with any number of deadly toxins and acids, each of which can affect the soul just as they do the body. When such measures aren’t necessary, the stinger itself can instantly punch through flesh and bone. Sol Invictus: SOLSTICE’s magic, a magic linked to the power of the Sun, which Venus has taken into her own hands as a tribute to her mother, following in her hands. Needing no Solar Drive to utilize the magic due to her greater skill, Venus’ usage of this magic manifests through the same control of radiation and nuclear phenomena, and thus the strong and weak nuclear forces. While her much greater knowledge in magic means that Venus can use the magic with more versatility than her mother, it is a magic that was constructed for SOLSTICE’s use and the results can’t really match up, something that Venus is fine with given that her focus lies elsewhere. Still, the magic is a good match for Venus, whose photosynthetic processes provide a supply of light energy for use in the magic. This light, when used intelligently, can be reabsorbed to make it perfectly efficient, but Venus’ store of energy is still nowhere as substantial as SOLSTICE’s, meaning she must use the magic more selectively, especially since she must preserve energy for her own regeneration. For her attacks, Venus converts the light into deadly radiation inside her body, firing it from her hands and plants with lethal precision, often with enough power to break down matter, dissolving molecular structures to disintegrate other beings. Override Sigil: An extremely advanced form of magical technique used to change the nature of reality around and within the user, allowing them to bend and break through the laws of physics. Due to their complexity, Override Sigils are incredibly difficult to create, use, and control properly, requiring detailed knowledge and a powerful will. In addition, they tend to, invariably, drain a lot of energy and stamina, making it difficult to use them for extended periods of time, even if this can be mitigated by more powerful and willful agents. * Relative Lightspeed: A common form of Override Sigil that is ultimately developed in some form or another by most agents as they increase in power and speed. Normally, it would be impossible for even an incredibly powerful and willful agent to break through a universal constant such as the speed of light, theoretically requiring infinite magical energy to do so. However, this Override Sigil circumvents this issue by modifying the user's inner world to change the value of c to whatever they please, raising it as they grow in speed so that they can accelerate past the universal speed limit. Gallery Venus GardenBlossom.png|Venus, as drawn by Gardenblossom. Thank you, again! Trivia * Venus loves B-movies, all those old, hokey science fiction, horror, and monster movies. She particularly loves Godzilla. 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